BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Florida Gators took a road trip Saturday to the Lone Star State, where, basically, a Big 12 game proceeded to break out and the visitors ended up on the wrong end of a no-defense affair.
Texas A&M trampled UF for 543 yards, including 338 and a couple touchdowns through the air from quarterback Kellen Mond and another 174 and two scores on the ground from tailback Isaiah Spiller, but it was a chip shot field goal from Seth Smith as time expired that ultimately settled the shootout and handed the No. 21 Aggies a 41-38 upset of the fourth-ranked Gators at Kyle Field.
The decisive score came after senior tailback Malik Davis fumbled with 3:48 remaining in a tie game, and thus denied UF quarterback Kyle Trask, the Manvel, Texas product already with 312 yards and four TDs, a shot at a game-winning drive in his home state. Instead, the Aggies needed eight plays, 40 yards and Smith's game-winning kick to run out the clock and leave the Gators (2-1, 2-1) to ponder a flurry of questions about a defense that was shredded by mostly two players.
Trask and his cohorts, to be fair, can also turn a finger on themselves for failing to salt away an 11-point third-quarter lead, and a 38-31 advantage with 6:14 remaining.
"Obviously really frustrating, to be that close," said Trask, who hit on 23 of his 32 throws without a turnover and was sacked just once. "There was a point in the game where we got it almost locked away. We just got to be able to put our foot down and put the game away or else. Therefore things like this won't happen."
Fifth-senior quarterback Kyle Trask (11) had another big afternoon (312 yards, 4 touchdowns), but this was a game where the last offense with the ball was going to win ... and the Aggies had it last.
Some combined offensive numbers:
* 79 points * 945 yards * 2 punts * 18 of 24 on third down * 2 of 2 on fourth down * 10-for-10 in the red zone
And yet the final stat sheet tipped significantly in A&M's direction, just one week after the Aggies (2-1, 2-1) were undressed by four touchdowns at No. 2 Alabama, one of the Southeastern Conference programs to which UF aspires.
"This one hurt," fourth-year junior linebacker James Houston IV said. "I don't think we expected to even be that close. We wanted to blow them out and send a statement."
The statement, instead, said a great deal about a defense that surrendered 543 yards (A&M averaged 7.3 yards per play), 32 first downs, allowed a staggering 12 of 15 third-down conversions (that's 80 percent) and gave up a 19-yard touchdown run on its only fourth down snap.
"We're going to reevaluate a lot of things defensively, where we're at right now. We're going to evaluate some things with our personnel," UF coach Dan Mullen said. "Our ability to make plays, make sure we have all the right guys at the right position to put us in position to be able to make the plays, we need to to get off the field. We can't give up [12] of 15 conversions in a day and expect to win any game."
When Mullen and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham crunch the early season numbers on Sunday the three-game damage will reveal a unit that is giving up 33.3 points, 495.0 yards per game and more than 28 first downs per game, as well as well as nearly 59 percent conversion on third down and 75 on fourth.
"Disappointed," UF senior defensive end Jeremiah Moon said with a sigh. "We got to get off the field. We got to wrap up. We got to tackle and we got to get to the quarterback. We got to cover. It's simple, and we're not doing that right now. Those are the things we're gonna have to come in on Monday ready to work on."
Before that, though, will be a further review of Saturday.
Trask and the UF offense took the opening drive and used half the first quarter to score the game's first touchdown, going 75 yards in 17 plays, converting three third downs and a fourth down before hitting his favorite target, tight end Kyle Pitts, for a 5-yard touchdown between two Aggie defenders on third-and-goal. For Pitts, who also had a 16-yard reception on third-and-14 along the way, it was his seventh TD of the season and made it 7-0 at the 7:28 mark.
No big deal for Mond, who took the Aggies an identical 75 yards, but did so with a big play. Mond took advantage of a double safety blitz by the Gators and found wideout Chase Chapman (9 catches, 151 yards, 2 TDs), who raced past cornerback Marco Wilson on a deep post, for 49 yards to the UF 12. Three snaps later, on third-and-11, Mond had a nice pocket to rocket an 11-yard score to wide Chase Lane slanting right to left in the end zone between a pair of defenders, making it 7-7 with 3:59 to go in the first.
Brenton Cox Jr. (1) and his UF defensive mates struggled to get pressure on A&M quarterback Kellen Mond (11) all day.
Trask wasn't nearly as methodical on his second series comparedto the first. HIs teammates helped, as did the Aggies. The drive started with a 15-yard roughing the passing penalty against defensive lineman Bobby Brown III. Trask hit Davis looping out of the backfield for a 39-yard catch-and-run to the A&M 15. Two plays later, Trask back-peddled his pocket and waited for wingback Kadarius Toney (7 catches, 92 yards, 2 TDs) to uncover in the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown and 14-7 lead with 2:17 left.
"He's just a very smart, explosive player. I mean, he's going to win a one-on-one matchup every time, I 100-percent guarantee that," Trask said of Toney, who is fast becoming a favored target along the lines of Pitts. "If he's one-on-one in space he just opens up the playbook so much because he's such an explosive and agile player."
But again, a visitor's score was no problem for the home squad. This time, Mond moved the Aggies 94 yards in 14 plays, the big one a 30-yard completion to tailback Ainias Smith, who was basically uncovered in the UF secondary. Mond again was money on third down, converting all three of the situations, including a 2-yard touchdown pass to Chapman at 9:33 of the second.
Florida's third possession looked different than its first two, but netted the same outcome — a touchdown. Trask had an 18-yard completion to Justin Shorter, the transfer wideout from Penn State, but 45 of the 75 yards came on the ground, with freshman Nay'Quan Wright accounting for 36 of them, including the last one for his first career touchdown and 21-14 edge for his team with 4:14 to go in the first half. Wright would be his team's rushing leader on the day with 31 yards on six carries.
The half came to a close, fittingly, with a score, but only a field goal, as the Aggies, after going 73 yards in 14 plays, had to settle for a 19-yarder by Smith as time expired, doing so, in part, due to some poor late-half clock management. Smith's kick made it 21-17, with the Aggies getting the ball to start the second half after two quarters with scoring on every possession.
The game appeared to turn early in the third, when its back-and-forth nature finally ended with a rare service break by the Florida defense. The first UF stop of A&M on third down came at the 13:23 mark of the third quarter, on the Aggies' first possession after halftime, thanks to pressure on Mond from his left side by linebacker Brenton Cox Jr. The Gators, at first, appeared to blow their opportunity when Trask badly under-threw Trevon Grimes on a deep post that was easily intercepted by safety Leon O'Neal and returned 33 yards to the UF 32. The play, though, was nullified by a personal foul (hands to the face) penalty against defensive end Michael Clemons, giving the Gators a first down.
On the next play, Trask hit Grimes for 21 yards and on third-and-4, then lofted a perfect pass down the right sideline to Toney for a 37-yard touchdown and a 28-17 advantage that marked the first two-possession lead of the game for either team.
It was short-lived.
Back came the Aggies, who found they didn't have to throw the ball by going 75 yards in 10 plays, with nine of them runs, as Spiller splashed across for a 3-yard score that made it 28-24 with 4:18 left in the third. A&M's first seven plays of the march were runs that looked this: 12 yards, 23, 13, 6, 9, 6 and 6, without facing a third down along the way.
"You have to make plays on the field," Mullen said.
And, as a defense, get off of it.
UF's first punt at the 3:30 mark of the third quarter and A&M did not waste a chance to take its first lead of the game. A 66-yard drive was capped by Spiller's 19-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-2 with 12:35 remaining, pushing the Aggies in front 31-28. Florida's ensuing drive stalled at the A&M 25, but sophomore Evan McPherson, after back-to-back delay and false-start penalties, coolly bombed a 53-yard field goal to knot the score at 31 with 9:54 left.
Then came a big hit and turnover -- the game's first — that could have turned the game, but A&M wouldn't let it. A Mond-to-Smith completion was followed by a strike from safety Brad Stewart Jr., forcing a fumble that was recovered by cornerback Marco Wilson and returned to the Aggies' 37. Completions of 16 and 21 yards to Toney helped set up the go ahead score, a 1-yard swing pass from Trask to tailback Dameon Pierce for a 38-31 lead with 6:14 to go.
"Kyle put the defense in the best position," Moon said. "All we had to do was get off the field."
Junior running back Dameon Piercecelebrates his touchdown reception with just over six minutes remaining that gave the Gators a lead that did not hold up.
The Florida defense, though, didn't exactly make Texas A&M work for its next score: 4 plays, 75 yards, the last 51 coming on an over-the-top bomb from Mond to Chapman, who beat Wilson on a deep post the UF corner appeared to have a play. It was 31-all with 4:30 to go, but the Gators — and their Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback — with a chance.
Then the ball was the ground. Then the Aggies moved at will, again. Then came the field goal.
"I think this is a real big confidence-booster," Spiller said of his team's win. "I feel like we really gained our identity."
Florida's identity is one of a team that can move the ball, score in bunches, but also lets opponents do the same. The Gators willl have to try and fix it starting next weekend against defending national champion LSU, with six more SEC games to follow after taht.
"We have [an] all-SEC schedule," Houston said. "It's basically a NFL schedule. We're going to face some great offenses, very good teams. A&M had a fifth-year starting quarterback for their team, so that's almost like an NFL quarterback for their team. … Execution is probably the biggest thing that we need to get better at moving forward."
Moon was more direct.
"At the end of the day, it's up to [each] person to make their mind up if they want to be great. That's all it is," he said. "That's all I got to say."
